CASEY GARRISON South Korea - In keeping with the Army Family Covenant, the Army provides the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Program to help Soldiers struggling with all kinds of substance abuse including alcohol and drugs, illicit and over-the-counter. There are five components of ASAP: prevention and outreach, risk reduction, testing, treatment and rehabilitation, and suicide prevention.

For the testing component, more than 20 Soldiers, all noncommissioned officers, gathered in the ASAP classroom on USAG-Casey Nov. 16 to learn how to be alcohol and drug prevention noncommissioned officers for their unit during 40 hours of instruction. These NCOs will be bio-chemical testers, and alcohol and drug prevention officers responsible for providing quarterly education and training to their units regarding substance abuse, and given the title unit prevention leader.

"Because the testing is supposed to be random, we use a computer program called 'Drug Testing Program,' said Sgt. Warren Wilkins, new UPL. "This program chooses Soldiers randomly by name and Social Security No. Only the unit commander and the UPL know when the testing will take place. Four percent is tested every week in all units."

When testing is done it is a complete surprise to the units to prevent violators from preparing ways to cheat the test and give clean samples, Wilkins said. The dates and times when testing will be scheduled are decided by the commander.

"When the commander tells his 1st Sgt. to test and presents the selected names, the 1st Sgt. calls out the names of those to be tested in formation," Wilkins said. "Testers are allowed two hours to turn in their urine analysis sample. If you allow them more, it will give them time to contaminate or foil the test and beat the system."

Once the urine samples are collected, they are packaged and the paperwork for each sample is screened to eliminate clerical mistakes. It is then brought to the ASAP Drug Testing Program Point where officials make sure all the paperwork is correctly filled out for each sample. Samples are sent to Tripler Army Hospital in Hawaii for analysis, said Sgt. 1st Class Stephen Myers, and newly trained UPL.

"The samples will go to Tripler's Forensic Toxicology Drug Testing Laboratory for urine analysis," Myers said. "This laboratory is one of only six in the Army."

The laboratory will test each sample three times. The first two are simple and cheap tests, but the third is the ringer. After arrival at the lab, samples then undergo an initial immunoassay screening (using the Olympus AU-800 Automated Chemistry Analyzer). Those that test positive for the presence of drugs at this point undergo the same screen once again. Finally, those that come up positive during two screening tests are put through a much more specific gas chromatography/mass spectrometry test. This test can identify specific substances within the urine samples, Myers said.

The tests are returned to the Alcohol and Drug Control Officer, Wayne Johnson, who notifies the commanders if there are any positive results found by the tests.

"If a positive result is showing a prescription medication, it goes to the medical review officer," Johnson said. "This officer rules whether or not the drug was issued legally. Controlled substance drugs do not require a MRO review, only prescription drugs require this review."

When a Soldier is found positive for illegal drug use, two separate things happen: a CID investigation and a referral to ASAP for treatment. When he or she arrives at the ASAP office he begins evaluations to determine the specific treatment needed.